Oliver is one of the best LP relief pitchers in the entire Majors. Frasor, Jannsen, Santos, Litsch, Corderro, Villueneva. That is clearly a better bullpen then last year and as it's been discussed over the last few weeks by many people in the game, has the chance to be one of the best in the Majors. If not, the Jays have a premium of much needed and overvalued bullpen arms at the trade deadline.
If Travis Snider, 22 year old Travis Snider, doesn't pan out then yes it would be a tough position and one the Jays have to re-evaluate. He is still far to young, and has far to many tools and put up elite numbers in AAA, to give up on. Just like with any young team, there are those variables you can simply not control. That's why you keep drafting strong year after year and stockpiling incredible young talent, so when one or two players don't pan out, you have a farm system loaded with talent to take over. The Jays decided the last two years to invest more money then 95% of the rest of the Major Leagues into the draft and international prospects. They did a great job of stockpiling draft picks and using the old CBA rules to their advantage.
To evaluate this team on the criteria alone of will they are a World Series contender then they come up short. Of course this team has holes, no fan is trying to tell you they do not. Perspective is needed when looking at all of this, especially with how short of time AA has been on as GM and the strides that have been made. No Jays fan thought under any circumstance this team would be a perennial world Series contender by this time under AA.
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